<\/p>\n
Although this program deals chiefly with the days of long ago, I like occasionally to call your attention to a contemporary item of significance. So, as I have had reason to do several times on these broadcasts, I again want to pay tribute to Waterville’s foremost scholarly writer, Carl J. Weber.<\/p>\n
In 1940 Dr. Weber published his outstanding biography of Thomas Hardy, under the title “Hardy of Wessex”. During the subsequent quarter of a century Dr. Weber’s continuing, diligent research into the life and writings of the British novelist convinced him that a revision of the book was in order. This fall that revision came from the press and has met with high praise on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1949 Dr. Weber was the author of a unique book entitled “A Thousand and One Fore-Edge Paintings”, the only book ever published on the art of decorating the front edge of a book, so that, when the pages are spread, a picture is revealed.<\/p>\n
For many years that book has been a collector’s item and there have been repeated demands for a new edition. That edition is Dr. Weber’s second publication of 1966.<\/p>\n
Both the new “Hardy of Wessex” and the new “Fore-Edge Paintings” are at the Waterville Public Library. Waterville can be proud indeed to have as a resident a writer known and respected throughout the English-speaking world.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago I told you about Austin Castle, a fantastic mansion built in Franklin, Maine by a man who planned to get gold out of “them thar hills”. Mrs. Emma Morang, a member of the staff at the Central Maine Sanitarium, has given me further information about that interesting place. She assures me that the building has not disappeared, but is still standing and is in fact being partially restored by new owners.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Morang first saw the castle when the Austin sisters were still living. She says: “It was 1935 or 1936 when I first saw the place. It needed repair badly, and cats could be seen everywhere. There was a caretaker at work with a team of beautiful horses.”<\/p>\n
After one sister died in the early 1940’s, the survivor employed a couple named Butler to come and take care of her. She bought them a home out on the main road about two miles from the castle. When the surviving sister died, she bequeathed the whole property to the Butlers. The Butlers sold it to the owners of the Exchange Hotel in Ellsworth, who in turn sold parcels from it until only about 100 acres were left. That is now the property of the present owners who are restoring the place.<\/p>\n
About five years ago Mrs. Morang was inside the big house for the first time. “At that time the Exchange Hotel people were planning to renovate the mansion for a hunting lodge. A workman let us in and showed us through.” I think the round terrace room was the only one finished. To see other rooms we had to crawl through mess after mess. The circular staircase was protected by chicken wire. A huge stone fireplace almost filled one wall of the main big room.<\/p>\n
“About that time the hotel owners abandoned their plan, and the debris added by their attempted repairs was simply added to the accumulated rubbish of the years. Many of the rooms had surely never been picked up or cleaned for at least half a century.”<\/p>\n
Mrs. Morang continues: “While going by it only a few weeks ago I decided to take another look at the place. What a surprise! It was being lived in. In the yard were two cars with New York license plates. The house had new windows, even aluminum combinations, new shingles, new roof, and fresh paint. What a delightful sight! The old barn had been torn down. A man working around the barn site hailed a lady, who came out and greeted me. I told her why I had come — that I had heard the story of the old castle on Little Talks on Common Things, and I wanted more information to pass on to Mr. Marriner. The man working on the grounds proved to be the new owner and the attractive lady was his wife. The man is Captain Lang, now retired from the sea, and sharing with his wife the joy of restoring this historic place.”<\/p>\n
Mrs. Lang, according to Mrs. Morang, was not enthusiastic about having the place publicized on Little Talks. She said: “Oh, dear, we were in hopes there would be an end to curiosity seekers, but I expect next summer will bring more and more of them. They run allover the place — treat it like a public camp ground. If we don’t lock the door, some of them walk right in without knocking. They destroy the lawns, break down the rose bushes. trample the flowers. stand on the porch and peer through the windows.”<\/p>\n
Mrs. Morang says one morning the Captain opened the front door to be greeted by a family of five having breakfast on his porch. Apparently many of the visitors are directed to the spot by motel proprietors. who tell them they ought to see this local curiosity before leaving the area. The Langs have no complaint about their neighbors. whom they like and who respect another’s privacy.<\/p>\n
Mrs. Morang inquired about the mess of trash she knew had been in the big house a few years ago. Mrs. Lang told her that they sent off load after load in a huge dump truck. Forty of the sixty plate glass windows were broken and had to be replaced. The new owners finally put amber colored glass in the porch windows to secure privacy from the peepers. One large window had been of stained glass, but when the Langs took over, all that remained were a few ten inch squares. Mrs. Lang explained that she had a Norwegian friend who does this kind of work, so she had the window replaced as a Christmas gift to her husband.<\/p>\n
I am glad to have from Mrs. Morang this additional information about Austin Castle. and I want to take this opportunity to say a word about respecting other people’s privacy as well as their property rights. I think the Langs should post conspicuous trespass signs and not hesitate to prosecute people who open their doors and walk in, despoil their grounds, or peep through their windows. As for persons who have genuine historical interest, I am sure the owners will greet such visitors cordially, but even those visitors ought to arrange in advance for their calls.<\/p>\n
The section near the Western Avenue bridge over the Messalonskee in Waterville was long called Crommett’s Mills because of the family who developed the big saw mill that once dominated the place. I was interested recently to discover a newspaper clipping from the Waterville Mail in 1875. The reporter had fortunately secured an interview with the aged Theodore Crommett, who then lived near the old mill. Mr. Crommett had been born in Waterville near the close of the 18th century, and he told some interesting anecdotes of the early days. Whether some of them were true, or were just legends from the old days, it is hard to tell, but they were at least interesting.<\/p>\n
The compiler of the Centennial History of Waterville recorded that Dr. McKechnie, pioneer settler on the Messalonskee, was buried in Waterville’s original burying ground on the brow of the hill north of the present course of Western Avenue. It is also recorded that, after McKechnie’s death, his widow married David Pattee.<\/p>\n
What the historian did not record was Theodore Crommett’s recollection that David Pattee so hated Nathaniel Gilman, who owned the cemetery land, that he insisted on being buried elsewhere. Crommett also said that Dr. Obadiah Williams, Waterville’s first prominent land owner, directed that he should be buried on the other side of Hayden Brook, and Williams threatened to haunt his survivors if his wishes were not obeyed. Dr. Williams’ body was, however, one of the few that was removed to the town cemetery in what is now Monument Park when the course of old Mill Street, now Western Avenue, was changed.<\/p>\n
Mr. Crommett told the reporter: “Dr. McKechnie was a fine man of taste and culture, as shown by his choice of a site for his house and the site for a burial ground. It is a beautiful spot now, and I think I shall be buried here myself. The doctor was not a relative of mine, but I have such respect for him that, though the land is all mine without reservation, I have never ploughed over these graves. The old burial place ought to be fenced and improved.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Crommett told of one of the many freshets that swept out the Western Avenue bridge: “The bridge had become so weakened by the rising torrent that when a load of logs drawn by four oxen drove onto it, all went into the stream together. The men swam ashore. but the oxen were drowned, and it took 75 Spanish milled dollars to make good their loss to the owner, Moses Dalton”<\/p>\n
Mr. Crommett remembered old-time lumbering in this region. He said: “Logs were cut in Rome, Belgrade and other towns and hauled into one or another of the Belgrade Lakes. Many were sluiced out of Snow PO’nd into the Emerson Stream, now called the Messalonskee. and sawed at those mills of my family. The boards were then hauled by carts to what was called the Board Landing at the foot of the Plains.” (Mr. Crommett meant a place on the stream not far below the present site of Flo’s Greenhouse.) “The boards were then rafted down the rest of the stream into the Kennebec and down that river to Bath where their usual price was one British pound per thousand feet, equivalent of less than $5.00.”<\/p>\n
Mr. Crommett gave this account of the family mills: “The Crommett Mill was started in 1819 by my father, James Crommett. The large building, intended for a woolen mill, down on the point where the tannery is, was built in 1824 by Barrett and Windsor, but the enterprise failed before the structure had been completed. So the place was converted into a public hall for Fourth of July celebrations and other large gatherings. Here was presented the first drama ever to be shown in Waterville. ”<\/p>\n
Year: 1966<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #709, Broadcast on December 18, 1966<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42954,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}